Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham Must Improve this Season
![NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - MAY 15: Mauricio Pochettino Manager of Tottenham Hotspur looks on after Newcastle's fifth goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur at St James' Park on May 15, 2016 in Newcastle, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - MAY 15: Mauricio Pochettino Manager of Tottenham Hotspur looks on after Newcastle's fifth goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur at St James' Park on May 15, 2016 in Newcastle, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/5c79ae83e77e509e322a417d8b502c931345377a922b1376f9799a804f060dbb.jpg)
In order for Tottenham to improve this year, Mauricio Pochettino is hoping his squad learns from their mistakes last year to close the 2015-16 season out.
The 2016-17 season is nearly upon us and with every club getting ready to put behind last year’s accomplishments or disappointments to begin anew, Mauricio Pochettino is looking back on Tottenham’s final stretch of games and will be using that as motivation for this upcoming campaign.
For the final four Premier League matches, Spurs were unable to win any of them and saw their title hopes dashed against West Brom and Chelsea. Then, claiming a top-two finish slipped through their hands after a 5-1 loss to Newcastle United.
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It’s understandable for many people who don’t want to remember last season’s four-game winless streak to end the year, but despite a third-place finish that is still an improvement from their fifth-place finish two years ago.
Tottenham, more or less, are trending upwards these past two seasons and if Mauricio Pochettino wants his team to take that next step forward, they will have to learn from last year’s mistakes.
“It is true that at the end of the season we felt very disappointed in the way that we finished the Premier League but if we are clever we need to improve from our mistakes and we need to show that we are clever,” Pochettino said (via Sky Sports).
“It is a good opportunity. We keep the same team, the same players, I don’t think there are a lot of changes around the changing room and in the squad and I think that can help us.”
Also helping Tottenham improve this year is facing a much more competitive Premier League with the additions of Pep Guardiola, Antonio Conte and the return of José Mourinho.
Then when you add in the Champions League with the elite clubs throughout Europe, there’s plenty of opportunities to have Spurs’ young squad gain massive experience.
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At the same time, the Champions League is on a different level than the Europa League, and Pochettino will have to manage his selections perfectly to get wins in the group stage while still being competitive domestically.
“Like a coach or manager I think you can improve and you need to improve from your mistakes and we have a big challenge ahead because now we have to repeat our performance, try to improve and play Champions League, which for a lot of players is a new competition,” Pochettino continued.
“It is true we will expend more energy than playing in the Europa League and we need to manage that a different way than last season but it is exciting for us and you can feel all the players in the changing room they are excited to start to compete.”
This season will be an exciting one for Tottenham because they have been mentioned as a possible title contender once again and will return to Europe’s elite club competition for the second time in the club’s history.
Next: Mauricio Pochettino Rates His Tottenham Squad Highly
No one knows how Mauricio Pochettino and his squad will do this year with a mostly unchanged team (which isn’t as bad as it seems) but however it ends, this will be a good test for the north London club to see how far they’ve come in just three seasons with the Argentine manager since his arrival back in May 2014.